This is me.

I am the award-winning author of 22 books, an adjunct teacher at the University of Pennsylvania, a co-founder of Juncture Workshops, an essayist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a book reviewer for the Chicago Tribune. I take photographs. I hope for peace. All blog text and photographs copyrighted.

Tell the Truth. Make It. Matter.

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Five-day in person memoir workshops. Monthly memoir newsletter

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HANDLING THE TRUTH: on the making of memoir

Winner, Books for a Better Life/Motivational Award. Named Top Writing Book by Poets and Writers. Featured in O Magazine. Starred Reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus, a Top Ten September Book at BookPage. For more on this book please tap the image.

six mini memoir lectures

If you, like me, are a memoir nerd, you might enjoy this series of themed thoughts on great memoirists and the making of memoir. Click on the link for the discount code. Bonus material: a behind-the-scenes look at the making of these videos, in Cleaver Magazine.

This Is the Story of You

"This beautifully written book works on many levels and is rich in its characterization, emotion, language, and hint of mystery." SLJ Starred Review. “A masterful exploration of nature's power to shake human foundations, literal and figurative.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review. "Kephart (One Stolen Thing) establishes relatable characters and a poetic style that artfully blend the island days before and after the storm.” — Publishers Weekly. A Junior Library Guild and Scholstic Book Club selection. Chronicle Books. Click on the image to learn more.

LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair

"... another excellent nonfiction book for the general reader." Library Journal. LOVE is the Upper Dublin/Wissahickon Valley Libraries Let's DIscuss It Pick. More more on the book and events, click on the image.

One Thing Stolen

2016 TAYSHAS Reading List, Parents' Choice Gold Medal Selection. Shelf Awareness Starred Review. Booklist Starred Review: "An enigmatic, atmospheric, and beautifully written tale." "Kephart at her poetic and powerful best. ONE THING STOLEN is a masterwork—a nest of beauty and loss, a flood of passion so sweet one can taste it. This is no ordinary book. It fits into no box. It is its own box—its own language." — A.S. King. Amazon Editor's April Pick. Top 14 Teen April Novel, by Bustle. Find out more about this Florence novel, due out from Chronicle Books in April 2015, by clicking on the image.

Going Over

GOING OVER is a 2014 Booklist Editors' Choice, the Gold Medal Winner/Historical Fiction/Parents' Choice Awards, an ABA Best Books for Children & Teens, 2015 TAYSHAS Reading List, YALSA BFYA selection, a Junior Library Guild selection,voted as a 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime, a Booklist Top Ten Historical Novel for Youth, a School Library Journal Pick of the Day, an Amazon Big Spring Book, an iBooks Spring's Biggest Book, and has received starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Shelf Awareness.. Click on the image for more information.

FLOW: Now available as a paperback!

"There is no more profound or moving exploration of Philadelphia’s history."—Nathaniel Popkin Originally released in 2007, Flow is now available as an affordable paperback. More on this book—the autobiography of a Philadelphia river—can be found by clicking on the image.

Nest. Flight. Sky.

NOW AVAILABLE through Audibles."... strives to give all those who grieve the hope that there is peace, a peace that we can live with and thrive with, as long as we remember to breathe and be alive." — Savvy Verse and Wit. Click the link to get your copy for just $2.99

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Thursday, June 6, 2013

So very grateful to Cleaver Magazine and Michelle Fost for this beautiful review of Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent. It means the world to me that you took notice of a book I loved writing so very much.

I quote the final paragraph here, but please do read the whole. And then take some time to leaf through Cleaver, one of the most exciting new additions to the literary scene in a very long time.

Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent includes illustrations by
William Sulit, Kephart’s husband, that are a great addition. The novel’s
target audience is young adult (I can imagine it being read in a
classroom) but is enjoyable for older readers also. William buys the
potion of the novel’s title, one of several such colorfully named
elixirs he sees advertised in the Ledger. It’s a sham that might
work its magic for William simply because of the strength of his desire.
He wants, most of all, for it to help his mother. I liked the pile up
of historical artifacts and scenes, I liked the sounds of the names of
things Kephart brought into her story—“the flangers, fitters, riveters,
carters, chippers, caulkers coming in” and so on—that give this story
that begins in a hard scrabble moment in a boy’s life in old Bush Hill a
feeling of abundance.